Trend-setting cut

The German brand’s new CEO is cutting 20 stores and 50 million euros of costs to deal with falling sales. While second-quarter revenue beat expectations, net profit fell 84 percent. Hugo Boss’s peers will also face a painful reckoning after their own rapid expansions.

Mark Langer, the new chief executive of Hugo Boss, said the brand will close 20 less profitable stores globally in the next 18 months and refocus its U.S. business.

Hugo Boss now expects full-year currency adjusted sales to fall between zero and 3 percent, compared with a previous outlook of a rise, while it expects earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) before special items to fall 17-23 percent.